Run leader 101: don't leave one of your group behind.. Oops, sorry Bradley!

A big Bromley welcome to Charles and Amy, who joined us once they had negotiated the 2 rather large, albeit friendly, dogs who had settled near our table in the Bridge House. Congratulations to Ian who was proudly showing off his medal and top from the Hever Castle triathlon series (and thank you for the pun-spiration), and to Bradley who had finished seventh in the Kingston half marathon, to go with his first place in the Lee Valley Velo Park 10 miler a couple of weeks ago.

The darkness and sogginess of the park was even darker and soggier than anticipated, so we did a quick warm-up under the street lights before heading off on a short run to Anerley Town Hall where Robert was waiting to meet us, along with Hannah and Bradley.

Our task for the evening had a sense of reverse deja-vu about it, if there is such a thing. We had carried dismantled desks from the old library space down into the boiler room in the basement on a task last year; this week we were carrying them back up the stairs, then back down another set to store them in a newly cleared room. Headroom was an issue but amazingly we managed to keep heads intact.

Downward slog

There was a yoga class going on in the room next door, so we had to be quiet as we worked, which added an extra challenge to the task, especially for me. Bradley took control of the packed out space and we started off with a human chain system, but this soon went awry as various parts of desks of differing sizes and weights started to appear up the stairs. I found a pig-shaped stress ball in the basement, which will be incorporated into a future fitness session, watch this space! It was amazing how much space we managed to clear in a relatively short time, Robert was delighted with the progress we had made, with only a few more pieces left for him to move.

We took a slightly longer route back to give our legs a stretch, with a deviation into the not-so glamorous Penge Homebase carpark to do a wall-sit (which Reece 'won'), in place of the planned fitness session in the park, which was reconsidered due to the puddly paths. Next week's won't be so light and weather-dependent, I promise.

Next week we are heading back up to the Upper Norwood Methodist Church to continue clearing their outside space. Lights and head-torches at the ready, and it CAN'T be as wet as last week. Sign up here.

In 31 degree heat, 31 hot bodies took to the streets of Lewisham to run between 3 and 4km and scrub and paint the railings at St Mary's Church.

Thanks this week go to Oli for our lovely, topical title pun, great work!

Oh my, it's so hot! Amazingly though, people still come out to run and do good, all 31 of us! Rolling up for the first time this week was Oli, who has run previously with our friends down in Bristol, but is now local to Lewisham. We hope you enjoyed our south east London brand of good and felt all the Lewisham Love Oli!

It's been another amazing week in the world of GG Lew, with Clare popping off to Norway and taking in a bit of parkrun tourism (it looked lush), Rebecca was off up north to ride the coast-to-coast (that's some serious mileage!) and a massive turn out at Hilly Fields parkrun to celebrate Conroy's 100th parkrun - well done everyone! Our biggest news this week was a milestone, with Bradley reaching his 50th good deed on a mission over the weekend. You know he only joined us in February, right?! I first met Bradley at parkrun, where he came along to volunteer, never having run before. The next week the volunteer roster was full, so he thought he'd have a go at running it. The rest, as they say, is history. Really well done Bradley, you've become such a wonderful part of the Lewisham (and Bromley) family, supporting your fellow runners, even when you've not been up to running yourself, thank you.

Don't fence me in!

Last week we ran over to St Mary's Church to make a start on the railings, this week we were running back there to continue the good work. With a top team of back-markers in place (party at the back - thank you Helen, Rianna, Caireen and Anna), we ran through Ladywell Fields, arriving to meet Marion and team at the front of the church. As last week, all the equipment was laid out on tables, ready for everyone to grab a brush and get stuck in. Some took wire brushes and worked away at the loose paint and bits of rust, while others got busy with the sticky black paint. It was great to see so many people joining us, with a great expanse of railing being covered tonight. We often uncover treasure at tasks, but this time Sarah found a crow bar (also known as a jemmy, before anyone writes in to complain), hidden in the bushes. This seems to be a recent theme, with Nykolette uncovering one on a mission at the weekend...

With little pockets of activity all around the space and conversation flowing, time passed in a flash and we were just about ready to enjoy some generous hospitality and indulge in some drinks and sweet treats - thank you!

With Ladywell Fields on our doorstep, we took the opportunity to focus our fitness session on running form, with some good, strong dynamic drills to warm our bodies and embed good posture, followed by a loop of the park to pair up similar-paced runners. Here's where the fun starts! With each pair heading in opposite directions, the aim was to keep a similar pace, arriving back at the start together. There was the added challenge of hills and some trees obscuring the view, but wow, what fantastic work from all of you, with impressive teamwork and some spot on pacing!

Into the wild

As we stretched back at Glass Mill, we looked forward to next Monday and a trip to the delightful Wildcat Wilderness, where we will tackle a number of different tasks. If you have volunteered at the wilderness before, please take a look at this survey, which will help the team develop some research they are doing at the moment (there's a chance to win a prize too!). As we're celebrating so many milestones at the moment, we also thought it might be good to have a social, post-run, at Mamma Dough - let me know if you are coming, so I can keep track of numbers for the booking. In the meantime, I hope to see some of you at parkrun on Saturday and out and about enjoying the sunshine :)

23 runners ran 7.5km to weed, clear undergrowth and shift woodchip at Wildcat Wildnerness

Lewisham News

• Long time Lewisham runner Kim Parker is about to clock up her 100th good deed, give her a cheer! AND Veronice Norcross just hit her 50! Amazing - cheer her here.

• At the weekend more than 70 GoodGymers went to Stratford-upon-Avon to run, talk about GoodGym and generally have an awesome time. Here's the report from the parkrun we descended upon to inspire you to come and join the Shindig next year!

• A big old hello and welcome to Emma, Larissa and Charles who joined us for the first time last night.

• Next week the group will be off to St Mary's to paint the railings - sign up here.

That's enough of the business...

With Adele away, it was my annual trip to cover her at Lewisham and boy have things changed... and that's not just the colour of the grass outside the centre! After a briefing we headed outside to warm up - trying out some hopping drills to get us thinking about reducing our contact time with the ground as we run - this helps make us more efficient runners and reduces the risk of injury. Hooray!

Off we set for the 3.5km to Wild Cat Wilderness which you can find out more about here. Wild Cat Wilderness is a community green space in Catford coordinated by the Rushey Green Time Bank, a local charity. It is a natural wilderness off Catford Hill where you can explore nature and the wildlife, play or relax in its peacefulness or learn new skills. On our way there we paused for some primal squatting, wall-sitting and to power over the loop-di-loop (the technical term...). Caireen met us there and Caz took us into the wilderness to get started. We split into two groups:

• Clearing undergrowth with machete-like things around the outdoor kitchen.
• Shifting woodchip from a pile and spreading it around trees

In the 30 minutes we moved the majority of the woodchip pile and cleared a huge amount of undergrowth. The kitchen will be used to teach children about raw natural cooking. It's an amazing space! We got loads done and Caz was thrilled.

On our way back we took advantage of a nice clear bit of park to stretch our legs a bit and get some speed in - a great feat in this weather!

A super duper evening, thank you so much for having me.

Keep running happy, Lucy